I am the Monarch Chapter 63: War and more war (1)

Roan let out a long sigh.
He sat down in front of a small stove.

Tadak. Tadak.

Although summer hadn't ended yet, a strong heat was emanating continuously from the stove.

“Certainly, the accumulation of the mana is much faster than when I was at miss Biate's place.”

Roan was now practicing Reid's Flamdor mana technique.
He had turned on the stove to absorb a little bit more of fire essence.
He slowly stood up and loosened his wrists and ankles.

'I wanted to live together with my squad members but…….'

He had a place to be alone to practice the Flamdor mana technique.
And just in time, Aaron and Gale obtained a small and clean house near the headquarters because of the reward.
Roan excused himself from the squad members and moved to another house.
And after that, he even shortened the time to eat or sleep and concentrated in training in the mana technique.
And on top of that, he lit the stove everyday. .

'It's already been three months since Pierce left.'

There were many things that happened in that while, but there were two especially important things.
One was that Roan started to train in the mana technique and Reid's battle techniques earnestly.
The remaining one was that he had risen to the rank of vice troop commander of rose troop along with Keniss.
Roan, who had already reached 1 class adjutant tried to decline, but Gale was adamant.
It meant that he couldn't leave him as a normal adjutant when he had received a badge.
At this point Roan convinced him to also add Keniss, and then he ended up agreeing.

'Because of that I get to lead the spearmen squad, swordsmen, and archers.'

Roan tried to mix these squads and make a new structure but he gave up in the end.

'The cavalrymen, defenders, and the strong ones are commanded by vice squad commander Keniss. If I make a mistake, I will only cause a commotion.'

In the end he decided to put the squad and formation revisions for another time.

“Whew.”

Roan let out a short sigh and grabbed Travias spear that was in his waist.

Cheng!

As he put in mana, the blade appeared along with tbe pleasing sound of metal.

'Hm.'

One thread of mana surged from his mana hole and went towards his right hand.
The mana road was quite hard and smoothly cleared because of the long training.

Swush.

He felt his palm tickle and then mana was put in the spear.
Roan just condensed mana into the blade instead of increasing the length or thickness.

Oooong.

A white light appeared slightly on the blade with a short vibration.
Roan concentrated a bit more and poured more mana into it but there were no more changes.

“Whew.”

In the end, he let out a long sigh and retracted his mana.

Cheng!

The Travias spear turned to become a steel stick again accompanied by the sound of metal.

'For now, am I able to cover the blade with mana?'

Even so, it still wasn't comparable to things such as normal blades.

'Should I say that I just opened my eyes in the operation of mana?'

But even so, the encouraging thing was that Reid's Flamdor mana technique was amazing.
Being able to cover the blade with mana with only three months of training was solely because of the mana technique.

'This was one of the reasons I didn't become Viscount Baker's disciple.'

No, the biggest reason Roan didn't become his disciple.
It was that he believed in the strength the mana technique had.
Although Reil's mana technique and spear skills were strong, it wasn't comparable to the mana technique of the strongest man in history, who was called the fire monarch.

'Although it's regrettable that I can't learn the spear with Viscount Baker, the mana technique fills in the lacking points and is more than enough.'

On top of that, although they weren't spear skills that utilized mana, Roan had tens and hundreds of real battle spear skills in his head.

'Although I can't make an amazing spearmanship like Pierce in an instant……….'

If he gathered the good points of many spear skills and took out the bad ones he was confident in being able to make a powerfully strong spearmanship.
Most of all.

'I have Reid's battle technique with me.'

Roan was planning to mix up the battle techniques with the real battle spear skills.
If it was Reil's battle techniques that shook the continent, it would be able to seriously complement the weak and strong points that his spearmanship had itself. .

'A combination of the spear and the battle technique.'

Roan bit his lower lip.

'I will show you a completely new spearmanship.'

He took in a deep breath.
If it just became like that, he was planning on being able to beat Pierce even after he learned Reil's spear skills.

'First, the level of the mana technique itself is different.'

His heart beated loudly.
Now, he could really see a different future to his past.

'Anyways……'

Roan bit his lower lip and opened his hand.
Although everything was going according to his plans, there was still one thing that worried him.

'Why is the mana shining in white light?'

When he looked at the rumours, various documents, and the contents written in the mana technique book, the light of the flame monarch's mana should have been red.
But Roan's mana was rather transparent.

'The element the mana has is certainly fire. Only that the colour is different…….'

He still couldn't discover any more problems aside from the color.
Although he felt that the accumulation of the mana was a bit slow, he couldn't confirm it as he hadn't compared it with other mana techniques.

'Is it because of that silver waterdrop?'

If that was the essence of water, wouldn't it be having some influence on the mana technique?
He couldn't be certain of anything.

'I'm not even certain if that was the essence of water in the first place.'

Roan took in a deep breath.
It was a problem that didn't have answers even if he pondered about it.

'If I get to find the pieces miss Biate left, wouldn't this problem be solved?'

He bit his lower lip.
He couldn't run to Poskein lake right now and retrieve Biate's piece.
He decided to leave it for later.

'There are no problems right now…….'

No, rather because the color of the mana changed, there was also a good point in it.

'Because it's not of a red light, other people would also never think that this is sir Reid's mana technique.'

In his past life, a war between Rinse kingdom and Estia kingdom happened because of this mana technique.

'Because the color of the mana changed, I wouldn't have to worry about that war happening.'

People wouldn't be able to know that Roan was learning mana if he didn't reveal it himself.

Ududuk. Duduk.

Roan softly loosened the joints in all his body and opened the door.
There wasn't anything better than to train your body when your head got complicated.
He took in a breath of the dawn air and ran towards the east gate.
The world was still dark.
It was still really early before dawn.
There was still a lot things to do before the sun rose.
Even so, Roan's steps didn't hesitant.
The darkness wasn't any problem to him because of Kalian's tear.
He went towards a secluded place near the east gate.
The castle gates were still closed because it was still before the sun peeked the horizon.
But even so, he couldn't train in Reid's battle techniques in the headquarters training grounds.

'There's nowhere as suitable as this.'

Roan looked at the place that was covered with dense trees and smiled.
He stood off at one side of the secluded place and slightly bent his knees.
He clenched his two fists and slightly bent his body towards the side.
It was an action that seemed that he would swing his fist at any moment
“Whew.”

Roan breathed out and kicked the ground.

Pabat! Pat!

At the same time, the two fists split through the air without stopping.

Spat!

The two legs moved strangely and quickly.
After that, kicks followed up.
Reid's battle techniques was closer to mixed martial arts.
There were various techniques such as kicking, throwing, choking, and smashing included into it.
And those various strong techniques connected with each other and composed one big technique.

'I'm still training in the basic techniques. I have to put in even more effort to master the intermediate and expert techniques.'

But of course, he also had to pour time and effort in training his mana technique.

'I'm lacking time.'

It was Roan that nowadays thought that he would like it if a day was ten times longer.

Pabat!

It was a dark dawn.
Roan moved relentlessly inside that darkness.

*****

It wasn't that Roan just focused on individual training.
He also poured much time in training the spearmen, swordsmen, and archers as the vice troop commander of rose troop.
He taught the 12th squad the newest training methods he knew and several signals, etc. Especially the first.
Although he couldn't touch the formation of the troop, instead, he made it so spearmen could help each other, swordsmen between them, and archers between archers.
He had half imitated the formation.

Flock!

The flagman was shaking two different flag sideways.
At that instant, the squad members who were in their formations scattered to the sides and moved with purpose.

Flock! Flock!

This time, the two flags moved at the same time.
The squad members started to return to their original formation as if they were waiting for it.
Roan, who was checking the movements of the soldiers while he was standing at the top of the training grounds, nodded with a smile.

'They are still at a basic level but they are all adapting at the signs.'

Because of that, he would be able to send simple but important orders faster than before.

“Retreat.”

As Roan let down the order, the flagman shook the flag widely.
In that instant, the soldiers that were running in the training grounds retreated like water.

'Good.'

While he was being proud.

“Vice troop commander.”

One soldier hurriedly approached.

“What happened?”

At the question, the soldier pointed towards the entrance.

“Someone visited.”

Roan just waited for the next words.

“He says that he's called Chris.”

At the following words, Roan faintly smiled and nodded.

'He finally came.'

It had been a month since he sent the visit request to Chris.
He had finally arrived at Beno castle.
Roan ordered the soldiers to rest and then started to move.
As he approached the entrance, he saw Chris around it.

“Mister Chris.”
“Ah! Sir adjutant Roan. Ah, no. You became the vice troop commander.”

Chris faintly smiled and bowed.

“Thank you for coming such a long way.”
“No. Even so, I wanted to visit you once.”

At Roan's words, Chris shook his hands.

“Let's go to my place for now.”
“Yes. Understood.”

Roan and Chris walked side by side and asked each other about their well being. When they were talking about how they were, Roan's promotion, the badge, and other things, they arrived at quite the fine house.

“Let's go in.”

Roan opened the door first and moved inside.
Chris looked at his back and hurriedly scanned his surroundings.
It was the habit and mannerisms especially from an information agent.

'There's a great amount of books.'

The house was quite unshapely.
The proper furniture consisted of a table, some chairs, and a bed at most. In the remaining places, there were incredible amount of books everywhere.

“Did you read this all?”

Chris grabbed a book and asked.
Roan shook his head with a really composed attitude and expression.

“No. I couldn't even read half of them.”

He had an awkward smile.
Those words were true.
Even so, it was a possible amount because he had also read in his past life.
He gathered books from everywhere because of his greed but he didn't have much time to read books because of the training.
But the reason he didn't stop buying books.

'If it gets a bit more systematized, I will have to teach the soldiers to read.'

Roan knew that that was one of the conditions for a strong army.

“You were really surprised after reading my letter, right?”

At those words Chris shook his head.

“No. I was also planning to visit you, vice troop commander.”
“Really?”
“Yes.”

Chris took out a pile of paper while answering.

“Do you remember the five merchants I told you last time, in Miller?”
“Yes. Of course I do.”

Roan received the papers and nodded.
Chris continued saying.

“For the past few months I have continuously invested in the five young merchants: Tio, Lidia, Eska, Nego, and Ford.”

Roan attentively listened.

“Amongst them, Lidia, who's a timber, and Eska who's a chef, are bringing quite an amazing profit. On the other side Tio, who's of the transportation industry and Nego, who's of the loaning industry, don't have many accomplishments to talk about. Lastly, mister Ford who's of the mining industry…….”

Chris awkwardly smiled and shook his head.

“It seems like we wasted the investment. Precisely speaking, it seems like he even has debt.”

Roan just nodded.
In the first place, he didn't think that all of them would succeed.
But that wasn't the important thing.

“In your opinion, what do you think their futures would be?”

At those words Chris hesitated for a moment and then replied.

“Honestly speaking, the accomplishments of Tio, Nego, and Ford aren't that good but……”

He put in more strength in his voice.

“I think that there's worth in still checking on them.”

His eyes were filled with certainty.
Roan nodded.
He stood up and after he searched in the wardrobe next to the stove, he took out a big bag.

“I believe in your eyes in sizing up people.”

Roan took out three jewel bags that were quite heavy.

“Keep investing in them.”

Chris shook his hands with a bit of a surprised face.

“There's no need to do this. As I have the profits from Lidia and Eska, it's plenty with just one bag.”

He looked at the big bag.

'He also gave me a jewel bag back in Miller……..'

He thought that it could be possible when he first received the investment in Beno castle.
He thought that it was a reward he received with the wanted reward.
But the jewel bag he showed back then and the one right now.

'It's not something that a normal soldier could accumulate.'

It was at a level where it could be accumulated in a few years if it was short, or some tens of years it it was long.

'Now that I see it, there's not much I know about vice troop commander Roan.'

It was quite an embarrassing situation to boast that he was an information agency.

'Even so, I don't want to forcefully check his background.'

At least, he wanted to give the information about Roan to him.

'That's the right thing.'

Then, Roan's voice was heard.

“No. One bag won't be enough.”

He shook his head and said as if whispering.

“You have new things to do.”

“Things…… to do?”

Chris asked back.
Roan nodded.

“The first thing………”

He brightly smiled and looked at Chris's eyes fixedly.

“You will have to move your agency to Pavor castle.”
“To Pavor castle?”

Chris asked back with a surprised expression.
Roan slowly nodded.

'It's time to slowly move. No, he must move.'

The reason why he returned to Beno castle even after he acquired Reid's mana technique and battle techniques.
That was because he remembered a lot of things that happened in the eastern region of Rinse kingdom, but there was the most important reason.

'War will soon appear.'

It wasn't a war between monsters.
It would be human vs human.
It would be kingdom vs kingdom.
It was almost time for the eastern region of Rinse kingdom to increase in heat.
Roan looked into Chris's eyes.

“You will have to grasp all the information in the eastern region into your hands.”

That was the first thing he had to do.
His voice was filled with strength.
His two eyes fiercely shined.

“It's time to move earnestly.”

< War and more war (1) > End

Translator's note: Thank you for reading!

Translator : Subak

Proofreader: st8_lupe.

Chapter end